The Living Room Alchemist

The Royal Family & The Poor - We Love The Moon [FACT 140 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC]

...subtitled The Project : Phase Two

This is a very dark record, unlike everything else on Factory Records, even more than the debut Temple Of The 13th Tribe - which is a pop record by comparison. The opening Visions lures you into a false sense of security as its gentle pop follows on from where the debut left off. Mike Keane was aided and abetted by fellow scouser Ambrose Reynolds (from Pink Industry) and Mother Destruction's Karen Halewood for his second album which delves deeper into Keane's fascination with the occult and other weird shit. White Stains, Pagan Ways and Heartbeat are the other most creative pieces herein, Transparent builds in obscure eastern textures, Sex Goddess is just pure disturbing. It still concerns me to this day why they left the full version of the title track off this album, the short orchestral version is excellent but we were stuck with a crackly picture disc if we still desired the original - which in my book, is one of Keane's finest compositions. Fans of the first two Psychic TV albums will like this record.

A1 Visions
A2 Sex Goddess
A3 White Stains
A4 Living Room Alchemy
B1 Transparent
B2 Pagan Ways
B3 Heartbeat
B4 We Love The Moon
B5 Conspire (To Breathe Together)